Joseph is a transplant to the data science field having previously worked eight years in international sales and manufacturing. He completed his B.A. in Political Science and Chinese Language from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.A. in East Asian Languages and Literatures from the Ohio State University. He spent four years studying and working in China, later returning to the U.S. and joining a Chicago area manufacturing firm. Looking to retrain as an economist, he took evening mathematics classes at the local community college and eventually completed his Masters in Computational Social Science from the University of Chicago, getting sidetracked by the amazing field of data science along the way.